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Published: October 31st 2007
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Well, we arrived safe and sound in Bogota after 16 hours in planes and airports, but our backpacks (mochillas) decided they didn´t feel like coming to Colombia. No jackets, no toiletries, no spare underwear, no change of shoes, socks, pants, no towel, no hair product, yep you get the picture.... Thankfully, Mauricio´s girlfriend Nety WAS there to meet us and informed us that we would have to come stay with her until we figured things out. She has a great little place in North Bogota and soon had us sorted with extra clothes and everythig else we needed. You might not think that we´d need jackets in Bogota, being near the equator and all, but the reality is that it´s at 2,600 meters and is therefore pretty cold. And rainy. Kind of like Vancouver really. We also quickly realized that due to the elections on the weekend, the entire city was dry. Well, wet with rain, but nothing to drink... Nety gave us a tour of Bogota in the evening, we grabbed a bite and crashed.... I have to say that Nety, her sister Tania, and her sister´s boyfriend Jairo have all been so helpful and welcoming it´s a bit overwhelming.
In the morning Nety tried the airline but they weren´t working until 2pm (?), so we jumped in a cab and headed downtown to check out the old city. Right away we noticed Mucha Musica Bogota. City TV here?! And the next thing we knew I was being dragged up to do a promo spot for a rock concert coming up on the weekend. It´s noticeable how few tourists there are here - even in the most touristy sections of the old city, you just don´t see any gringos. I guess as a result, people are extremely friendly and there´s no pushy touts like you see in so many other places. We were sitting in Plaza Bolivar, the main square, and suddenly some police came up to us, normally not the best thing, but it seemed that they wanted us to come with them for a photo. They seemed pretty friendly and had big sticks so we decided to go with them. We soon had another and another and eventually, with about 10 police, we arrived at a pickup truck which they wanted us to get into for a ´very short trip´. At this point we were getting a
little nervous so suggested that we walk instead... They were all very friendly and shortly we arrived at the police museum and all headed inside where we were introduced to the Jefe and all the other police and the police photographer. We were paraded around the museum, posing with everyone in front of all the displays and asked to look intently at the particular item the boss was pointing at. Apparently we are also going to be in the promotional poster for the police museum and we´re starting to think that we might have a Hasselhof opportunity here in Bogota. We had a quick coffee with the General and headed back outside...
We dropped into the hostel that we were planning on staying at and, to our great delight, found our errant mochillas, sitting in the corner. We rushed home to change clothes and have a celebratory drink with Nety and Tania.
On Tuesday morning, we caught a 6am bus to Villa de Leyva, a small town that was designated Unesco in, I think, the 50´s, with the result that the entire town has no modern architecture and all the old colonial buildings remain. We checked into a quaint little hotel, wandered the streets and relaxed in the calm pace of the village. By the way, in terms of prices, our hotel (private bathroom, clean and pretty, with breakfast) is about $30, a meal including soup, steak, rice, drink, veggies, dessert and coffee is $3-5, a beer sets you back $0.75-1.50. Amazing.
Today, halloweén, we headed by taxi to a place called the little hell (named so by the Spanish) which is an astronomical site consisting of upright stones to check the seasons and increase fertility (see the photo). You can imagine why the Catholics thought it had devilish qualities. Afterwards we decided to walk back through the countryside to the village checking out some very cool cacti and other plants on the way.
Back at the hotel we turned on the TV in time to see me. How weird is that.... Anyway, it is now evening, kids in costume everywhere and I´m off to join Laurel for some rum and to enjoy the fiesta!
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Kathy
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Happy Halloween
glad you got back your mochillas. Keep up the great descriptions! Kath